Blue
by ShadowWolf95
Summary: From a prompt I received from a friend. Anna reminiscences about certain events and thinks about how Elsa is blue, but not an icy blue. A story that is all over the place, and probably doesn't make up for my long absence.


I asked my friend for a one-word prompt and the prompt she gave me was "Blue". Here is the only contribution to the fandom I have created thus far. That I have finished.

Elsa, Anna decided, was blue. Not like icy blue, though. Well sometimes she was icy blue but not, well, _all the time_, you know? In fact, it was through Elsa that Anna was beginning to see blue as one of the warmest colors.

Of course it was easy to compare Elsa to ice. Elsa had ice powers! The cold never bothered her! The entire dress was made of ice! Heck, pouring ice down the back of her clothes wasn't even fun because she hardly reacted at all! But in all seriousness, at first glance, Elsa really was the perfect ice queen.

It was in her eyes. Anyone could agree on that. Her eyes at first glance were the color of a frozen lake, with all the harshness of the winter that chilled it. It was the way they glinted when she was furious, either when trade agreements had gone awry or when a prank from Anna went too far. It was the way her fury was never hot like Anna's, but rather biting and cold like a blizzard. That was scary, right? Quiet anger was always the worst, and even though she didn't want to think about it, it reminded Anna way, _way_ too much of closed doors and cold seasons spent alone in wide, empty halls.

But Anna had decided that it were also Elsa's eyes that made her feel warm at the thought of the color blue. For one thing, Elsa's eyes were not in fact icy blue, but rather the color of the sky, or maybe a sapphire. Just not ice. Ice was too light a color, and Elsa's eyes were deeper than that. Actually, Elsa's eyes reminded Anna of the water in the fjords in the summer; deep and mysterious and pretty. Sometimes, they were chaotic like the fjords were during a season when trade was good, but Anna could always admire how pretty they were after the world was calm again.

Elsa's eyes were always warm when she was with Anna! Well, most of the time. They were warm when she was talking with Anna, and when she was reading with Anna, and when she was just listening to Anna babble. But there were times when her eyes got hard and distant, just like the cliffs of the North Mountain. Those times, when she was shaking and stressed and frustrated, were the times Anna could see the scared little girl she wished she remembered from her childhood.

She wished she remembered. She didn't quite remember; not well, not the way she wanted to. She remembered things through the filter the trolls had imposed those thirteen years ago, although logic told her that those winters could have been summers for all Anna knew. Anna still treasured those memories, though, because ever since Elsa had tentatively stepped back into her life, Anna could remember her loving gaze easier.

Maybe it was because she was getting to see it again. Those careful gazes. The happy ones, too, and also the ones that said so much more than Anna could understand. As Anna had time to think about what had happened during the Great Freeze and subsequent Great Thaw, she realized those gazes weren't exactly a new thing. Elsa had gladly given Anna those same looks when they were standing side by side at the coronation, and even when they were at the ice castle.

But Elsa also reminded Anna of their mother. After the storm, neither girl looked at the painting of their parents for a long, long time. It hurt too much, and back then, it reminded Anna that she was very, very alone.

Somewhere during those long three years, the red head began to panic. She was forgetting details, details like how tall her father was, the exact length of her mother's hair. Was her hair even worn down? Did her father wear gloves like Elsa did? What did her mother smell like again? How was it her father chuckled?

That first revisit to the painting, _their _painting, had been so very, very painful. They looked so stiff in those pictures, so different from the parents she had grown to know and love. It smelled like paint, and their gazes went right through her like she wasn't even there. They were silent, just like their graves were, just like Elsa had been for years and years. She had sobbed, and since she had no where else to go, she had sobbed at Elsa's door, blubbering to a sister she didn't think was listening.

The second visit, though, Elsa had been with her. It had been a tentative request, a difficult one, but Elsa had accepted and given Anna a small smile that made the princess feel a small pang of familiarity. When they had gone to see the painting together, she realized why. Her mother, she could see now, had a very small smile painted onto her lips; the same smile Elsa had on her face at the coronation. Even their eyes had been similar, she realized. They had the same soft blue that made her feel warm and safe and loved.

Anna hadn't cried that time, but Elsa had, warm tears welling up in her eyes and spilling out. She had let out chocked sobs, her hand flying to cover her mouth. Anna was clinging to her other arm, after all.

"I-I'm sorry, I just…"

"Elsa? What's wrong? I'm sorry, maybe it was too soon, geez I'm an idiot-"

"No, no, it's not your fault I just…" Elsa glanced up at the painting. "I hadn't come close to them in years, Anna… I was so…so afraid I would _hurt_ them…" Anna's face scrunched up in concentration and concern.

"Well…you're touching me and I'm not getting hurt, right? Actually, now that I think about it, the only times you've ever hurt me, you were like, ten feet away from me and oh gods that was the wrong thing to say, wasn't it? Er, um…" While Anna scrambled to fix her error, Elsa looked down at her tearfully and smiled. Gave a small giggle, even.

"You're right, Anna."

"…Wait, what? I am?" Elsa touched her head to her sister's and laughed again.

"Absolutely." And the snow queen of Arendelle stepped away from her sister's side and stood thoughtfully before her father's stiff, diligent expression and her mother's soft one. She curtsied, just like she had when they had left her and Anna to sail to their stormy deaths. But when she came up this time, she had an adoring smile on her face.

"I'm learning to control it, Papa," she spoke, softly but confidently. "I'm…I'm not perfect, and I never was, but Anna's helping me now, and now maybe I can come close." And when she turned around to look at Anna, the princess felt more love in that gaze than she had felt in all her life. The hug she received a second later was the warmest embrace she had ever recieved, even though Elsa was always a little cool to the touch, and when they left, Anna was content. Not quite happy, but good enough. Elsa's pretty blue eyes sparkled like the sky after rain; as if, for the first time in forever, the weight of the miasma in her heart had been allowed to dissipate.

Anna had to admit later that she loved that look too. So maybe Elsa's eyes _were_ more the color of the Arendelle skyline? She couldn't decide, especially since staring at people's eyes for long periods of time for the mere heck of it was, well, really, really weird. Not really appropriate, honestly. But, Anna decided that she would decide for herself once and for all what blue Elsa's eyes were.

So, she tailed the queen for an entire day, taking notes and alternating between staring at Elsa's eyes to looking at the sky to staring at Elsa's eyes to looking at the fjords and back again.

This rapidly became ineffective as the day wore on, because the colors of all three appeared to change with the light of the sun, and Anna simply found herself following Elsa into the castle library and staring at her while she worked into the wee hours of the night by measly candlelight.

"So, Anna, is there something on your mind?" Elsa asked from her desk. "You've been staring pretty hard at my face for quite some time now."

"What? Oh! Pffft, no, there's nothing up! My mind is as blank as a sheet of parchment! Nothing up there at _all_!"

"Anna, you've been mumbling to yourself all day today." Elsa turned to look Anna full on in the eye. "_Please_ tell me what's wrong."

"But it's _embarrassing!_"

"Anna…" Elsa looked pleadingly at her sister. Anna struggled under her stare.

"Nnnnnnngh… Gah, _fine_! I was trying to figure out what color your eyes are!" Elsa stared at her sister, bewildered.

"Um. I think they're blue?"

"No, that's not what I meant! Everyone says they're _ice_ blue, but I don't think that's true, _I_ think they're a warmer blue than that! Because ice is cold, but your eyes are all warm and stuff, like summer skies and warm water and stuff and you make me feel warm and happy when you look at me and I just don't think ice blue _works_, you know?"

"I, well-"

"Like, ice blue is too light anyway! Your eyes are deeper than that, and I think people are just naming your eyes for your powers, which isn't fair either, because there's so much more to you than your powers, and I just-"

"_Anna_." Anna stopped and blushed when she realized she had been babbling and her sister was giggling behind her hand.

"I get it, all right? It _is_ a little weird that you would stalk me all day for something like that…" Anna looked away in embarrassment and a hint of shame. "…But it's not like I mind. You could have just asked me, too." Elsa pointed to her eyes with her pointer and middle fingers. "Gerda told me once a long time ago that they were sky blue, and Mama agreed, so that's what I go with." She turned back to her work.

"Yeah, yeah, I _thought_ so, yes…" said Anna thoughtfully.

"And before you spend a day and a half debating about your own eyes, I believe they are called 'sea green'." Anna colored again and huffed.

"I _know_ what color my eyes are! Why would you care, anyway?" Elsa put down her quill and straightened some papers before getting up. There was the slightest stain of red on her pale cheeks.

"I like your eyes just as much," she said with a small grin. And Anna couldn't stop the stupid grin that broke out on her face.


End file.
